In recent years, hybrid vehicles have received great attention as environmentally friendly vehicles. The hybrid vehicle employs, as drive sources, a conventional engine as well as a battery, an inverter and an electric motor driven by the inverter.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 8-154307 has disclosed a hybrid vehicle provided with an external charging function. The hybrid vehicle includes a battery that can be charged by an external charger, an electric motor driving wheels by an electric power supplied from the battery, control means for controlling an operation of the motor, an internal combustion engine directly and indirectly used for driving the wheels and traveling time related quantity calculating means that calculates a quantity related to a traveling time elapsed after the external charger charged the battery. The control means restricts the output of the electric motor when the traveling time related quantity calculated by the traveling time related quantity calculating means reaches a predetermined quantity.
When this hybrid vehicle has run for a long time without external charging, the output of the motor is restricted, and a driver is urged to perform the external charging. Therefore, this hybrid vehicle can reduce dependence on the internal combustion engine.
However, it is troublesome for a driver to connect the external charger to the vehicle via a charge cable every time the driver returns home and parks the vehicle at a parking space. Also, the driver must be careful to park the vehicle at an appropriate position when the driver moves the vehicle to a position near a fixed charger on a ground.